Rustic Hazelnut Coffee Soap

This weekend I worked on my first ever batch of soap using rebatch soap base. This is seriously by far my most favorite soap project to date–it smells so good!. I adore this soap. And so do the people who’ve tried it. Here’s what a house guest had to say:

“Is that brown thing soap? Because I kind of want to eat it.”

Recommendations just don’t get much more glowing than that, friends.

But what is rebatch soap base you ask? Great question! It is basically a big chunk of cold process soap that is grated down, melted, and re-batched (hence the name) into a new soap creation.

Why on Earth would you ever want to take a perfectly good batch of soap and rebatch it? If you’re a brave enough soul to make soap from scratch then you know just how dangerous handling lye–a necessary and highly caustic ingredient in soap making–can be. You also know that traditional, from-scratch soap doesn’t always turn out quite right every time–sometimes you end up with several pounds of useless goo, soap that is too lye heavy, or what have you. This is where rebatching comes in. Take your soap, grate it down, melt it, and fix it up!

That said, I’ve yet to attempt making soap from scratch (One day…). So none of that applies to me.

Then why do I use rebatch soap base, you ask? Because rebatch base is a fantastic way to bridge the gap between melt-and-pour soap making and traditional soap making. When melted, it’s consistency is much like that of hot process soap, and rebatched soap bars come out looking more textured and rustic, with a look and feel similar to hot process soap bars. Plus, rebatch base is great if you want to use delicate ingredients that, for whatever reason, do not respond well to lye solutions used in making from-scratch soap.

JUST SO YOU KNOW: REBATCH BASE TIPS

It melts to a thick paste and is a lot more viscous than normal melt-and-pour soap base. For this reason I recommend using a loaf mold, although you can use soap bar molds. Note that soap bar molds with detailing will make lifting your soap out of the mold difficult, and the detailing may not appear as desired.

It sets a lot faster than melt-and-pour bases do, so you must work quickly!

Step 2. Determine how many pounds of soap base you will need, and then begin grating your base down. I expected this part to be super tedious, but Stephenson’s base is so smooth and easy to work with that grating was a breeze–and I grated through three pounds of soap base!

Step 3. When everything’s grated, put your base in a double boiler or crock pot and heat on medium-high, stirring frequently, about every five minutes. Depending on the amount of base you’re using (and how cold it is in your kitchen, apparently) it can take anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour for your base to melt down. I was using quite a bit of base so it took a while for the base to melt.

Step 4. (Optional) To speed up the melting process, you can add distilled water (or milk, or goat’s milk) to your base, keeping in mind that the more liquid (water/milk and later, fragrance oils) you add the longer it will take for your base to set and the softer your finished bar will be. I added in about 1/2 cup milk to my three pounds of base. You really don’t need much (and you could probably get away without adding any).

(I also didn’t use a real double boiler–just a large pot of water with a Pyrex bowl over it. It works, but it’s a little precarious, so be careful.)

As it’s melting, it will start to turn creamy on the bottom. Be sure to stir! And as tempting as it may be to walk away, do not leave your melting base unattended! It can burn.

Once your base is melted, it will be thick and creamy throughout. It may turn a little darker in color and look ever-so-slightly gel-like and translucent as well.

Step 5. Once you’ve reached this point, you can start adding your additives: fragrance oil, cinnamon, and coffee grounds. When adding fragrance oil, Stephenson recommends not adding more than 3% additional oils to this rebatch base as too much oil can affect the performance of the soap.

And this is where I started working quickly! So quickly, in fact, that I didn’t even think to grab the camera and take pictures! Fortunately, the rest of the process is simple.

After I added the coffee grounds, the soap really darkened up in color and became a more coffee-colored brown. For a more textured/marble look to your soap, don’t mix in your additives quite all the way. My milk and honey fragrance oil contained a bit of vanilla, which will discolor the soap to a light brown once the soap hardens and cools. You can purchase a stabilizer to keep this from happening, but since we’re making coffee soap I was happy to let it develop this coffee-looking color.

Step 6. Once your additives are in, scoop/pour your base into your mold. I used a loaf mold made of plastic. Silicone loaf molds and wooden loaf molds work just as well, but keep in mind that wooden loaf molds require a wax paper liner so that you can remove your soap.

Step 7. Right after you’ve poured your soap into the mold, give the mold a couple of good strong taps on a hard surface. This will help the soap settle and eliminate any air bubbles in your soap. I let my soap live in the mold overnight before taking it out the next morning.

Step 8. From here, cut your soap into slices using a sharp knife or soap cutting tool. Since I didn’t stir in my additives all the way, I ended up with a neat rough and textured look to my bars. If you find that the sides of your bars aren’t as smooth as you like, you can always smooth it down with your knife later.

Step 9. It’s recommended that you let your soap dry out and harden for two days prior to use. I noticed a significant change in the moisture of my soap just after leaving it out overnight!

Step 10. Enjoy your soap, and don’t forget to share! I know at least 5 of my bars are packed in bubble wrap ready to be sent to my mom in Arizona! :)

Have you ever used rebatch soap base before? How did your bars turn out?

Love,
Gabby

P.S. DISCLOSURE: I was not compensated to write this post; however, I did receive a free sample of Stephenson’s Rebatch Soap base to use for this project. Rest assured, I only endorse products and brands I use, trust, and would recommend to a friend! This post contains affiliate links. Please see my FAQs and disclosure policy for more information. Thank you for your support!

Reader Interactions

Comments

This looks awesome. I’m going to try it this weekend or as soon as I can round up the ingredients! Where’s the best place to but the rebatch soap? Is there an alternate to that product if I can’t find it?

Oooh how exciting! I’d love to see pictures of the finished product! I get my base from Stephenson Personal Care but I’ve not seen it available for purchase on their US website (I can ask my contact about if it’s available for sale on that site). I believe that Brambleberry.com sells rebatch base, but I’ve never tried theirs (their fragrance oils are lovely though, that I can say for sure!). If you can’t find the rebatch base you need or just want to try traditional melt-and-pour first, you can purchase soap base online at my amazon shop (I have links to where you can purchase a number of different supplies that I’ve used in my DIY body care projects on the blog so you can get an idea of what I’ve used even if you don’t purchase it there.) Hope that helps!

Hi Adriana! I honestly just eyeballed my ingredients, everything but the fragrance oil that is. The amount of soap base you will need to make bars depends on the soap mold you’re using, and the amount of fragrance oil you should add depends on the amount of soap base you’re using. The packaging on your fragrance oil should tell you how much oil you need to add for x ounces of soap. As for the coffee grounds and cinnamon, I just sprinkled in some in, stirred, and added more until I had achieved the “look” I wanted. Sorry I can’t be of much more help :(

I saw your guest post at living well spending less on making coffee bean soap, and just had to check out your blog. I think I found my new favorite blog. And now I am inspired to make some soap! I’ve always been so intimidated by it, but you make it look so easy.

This looks super yummy – good enough to eat haha! I make cold process soap and find that half the time I want to eat the final product LOL. Anway, I may have to try your flavor combo – it sounds and looks amazing!

Hi Ashley! Not all soap base melts like this (all goopy and thick, I mean), only rebatch (as far as I’ve seen and understand, anyway). Melt and pour soap base melts a bit faster, is a thinner liquid, and takes longer to cool. I wonder if they make vanilla scented soap bases? I bet they do somewhere, but most bases I’ve seen are unscented so you can add your own scent. If you’re looking for a vanilla soap fragrance there is one in my Amazon shop (which you can access either in the sidebar or the Shop tab above) if you’re interested! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Ooh good to know! I’ve not seen it for sale on Stephenson’s US website but I might just be missing it. They’ve (Stephenson) only just recently (in the last year or two I think?) started distributing in the US through a US website so I’ll have to ask if they have this available in bulk. It’s good to know that if they don’t, it can be bought somewhere else, because I just LOVE this soap base! Thanks for stopping by Laure! :)

Hi Gabby, cute recipe! I have made coffee soap before using the cold process method and, unfortunately, most of the coffee scent disappears during the cure. I was wondering if the rebatch method allowed the scent of the coffee grounds to stay longer in the finished soap?

I love the look of this soap! I am really new to this and was wondering how much coffee, cinnamon, and spice you addes to the 3lbs of base. I am sure the amounts make a difference amd don’t want to ruin a whole batch. :)

Hi Aimee, Thanks for your comment! To be honest, I totally eyeballed the amount of each I used in the soap–just sprinkled it in until it looked and smelled good! Unless you put hardly any coffee/cinnamon/spice in, or just dumped way too much in (you know how sometimes the lid falls off when you shake and a ton falls in? hate that! haha), I doubt you could ruin it! :) Best of luck with all your soap making endeavors!!

Hello! I’m getting a list together to make this soap and I was wondering about how much oil I would need for 3 pounds? I know you just eyeballed it, but can you give me somewhat of an estimate? On Brambleberry, it comes in 2, 4, 8, and 16, but I have no idea how much I’ll really need. Thanks in advance! I can’t wait to rebatch!

Not necessarily. I recently made a soap with peppermint essential oil. I found I put in quite a bit of essential oil (it was very very pepperminty when I sniffed–it smelled almost TOO pepperminty!) but when the soap hardened, the peppermint was very faint. I’ve heard of soapers using either/or. Fragrance oil will probably give you a stronger smell and will almost certainly be significantly less expensive :)

This seems so wonderful! I noticed that someone else left this comment and I was also wondering approximately how much oil the 3 pounds used? Also, if you could give an approximation on the amounts of the other ingredients that would be great! Thanks!

That’s a great question! I always make soap in small batches so I end up using it up or giving it away before it’s ever “gone bad.” I suspect this soap would be good for months if not over a year. If you do not store it in an airtight plastic, it will slowly lose its smell over time (over about 6+ months). The soap will still work, it just won’t have as strong a scent.

hi. iv started looking at making home made beauty and bath products for Christmas. I love coffee so would be great to start with this. I was just wondering if the oil was the hazelnut fragrance in the recipie?

Hi Lisa! The specific fragrance oil I used with this was a milk & honey fragrance oil I purchased at brambleberry.com! It gave it a slightly sweet smell and worked wonderfully with the cinnamon and hazelnut!

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